


Nuzlocke sidestory: Time Enough

by Mangaluva



Series: The Keyleeverse [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Time Travel, lots of randomness and foreshadowing, wibbly wobbly timey wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-14
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-01-24 16:52:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1612361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mangaluva/pseuds/Mangaluva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the Saylee ficverse. Takes place between "Blood and Bond" and "Calamity Calls". Ho-oh was never meant for Morty, but his life has never been destined to be normal. For a guy who can see the future, he's got a lot of surprises in store.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Some people, when jolted awake, snap their eyes open or flail around or sometimes even actually sit bolt upright and stare.

Morty kept his eyes closed and lay still. Ever since he was a child, he’d had a tendency to wake up several minutes before whatever was going to wake him up. It was a fringe benefit of his slight case of temporal unfocus. It was nowhere near as bad as some of his ancestors—especially Chronos, who was said by some to have spent a grand total of five minutes of his life seeing into the right century and knew the names of all of his descendants except his children—and as a result was pretty manageable. He could feel that he had about five minutes until whatever woke him would happen, which would hopefully give him time to get to the hall where the noise would come from.

He slowly opened his eyes. A lifetime of working with ghosts and spirits had given him pretty good night vision, so he didn’t have to adjust to the darkness. He _did_ have to adjust for the fact that Eusine was a clingy sleeper, and extricating himself from his husband’s grip without waking him could be more of a challenge than wrangling a particularly malevolent Gengar. He managed to make it to the door just as something fell to the floor with a _thump_ that was just about audible from the door, but probably not from the bed, judging by the way that Eusine continued to sleep happily, now hugging a pillow.

 _It woke me because I would be close enough to hear it…_ Morty shook his head with a sigh. Sometimes, it felt like time was just taking the piss. He opened the door, frowning as he heard someone groan in pain. The voice sounded familiar…

Maeg, a Misdreavus he’d recently adopted, looked up in surprise when he stepped into the hall. “Master?” she said in surprise. “What are you doing in there?”

Morty took a moment to look down at what she’d been looking at before responding to that question. A pair of legs in torn and filthy once-white trousers were sticking out of the bathroom. It sounded like someone was being violently sick inside. Morty walked in to help them, but had to stop and stare instead.

He was throwing up into the toilet, coughing horribly and trying to brush his hair back in between purges. Morty tentatively reached out, then paused.

“Goodness knows it’s hard enough to keep my hair out of the way sometimes when I’m brushing my teeth, and washing vomit out is _not_ fun,” he said, trying to keep his tone level, “but if I touch y—m—well, if I help, I won’t cause any space-time rips or anything like that, will I?”

“It’ll… be… fine…” the other him gasped, waving a hand. “It… was… fine…” He started retching again. Morty pulled his hair out of the way, reflecting in a slightly detached way how strange it was to be holding back his own hair in a way that he could see both his hands. _Somehow, your own hair feels a little different from anyone else’s,_ he mused, wincing as watching himself puke made his stomach turn.

“Better get… Eusine… before you… puke too…” his other self got out between hurls. “It’ll be… fine… though prepare… for the… jokes…”

Morty took out the band that he tied back his long blond hair with at night. His other self had anticipated—remembered?—this, and already had a hand out to take the band and use it to quickly scrape his hair out of the way before returning to puking. Morty backed out of the room quickly and went back through to his room.

“Eusine,” he hissed, shaking his husband. Eusine rolled over, stared blearily at the pillow that he was clutching, tossed it aside and sat up, finger-combing his hair back.

“Whas goin’ on?” he yawned. “What’s happ’nin? Hassit happened yet?”

“I’m throwing up in the bathroom,” Morty explained quickly. “Another me. I think it’s me in the future. I’m going to go get a glass of water, because listening to me puke makes me want to puke too. Can you look after me?”

“…There’s _two_ of you?” Eusine said, grinning brightly and looking suddenly much more awake.

“Focus,” Morty ordered, giving him a push. “Go rub my back, it’ll make me feel better.” He stepped back into the hall. “Maeg, if any of the novices or other ghosts come this way, can you deflect them? This will get harder to explain the more people I have to explain it to.”

“Of course, Master,” she said, bobbing a little curtsey and floating down the hall to talk to a Haunter who’d stuck its head through the wall. “Master’s a little ill, Greg. You don’t want to see it, you know how icky bodies can be…”

Morty headed the other way, into the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water and wondering if he could be jealous of hearing his husband giving a backrub and making soothing noises to someone else. _Except it’s not someone else, that’ll be me sometime in the future,_ he thought, staring somewhat vaguely on the calendar display on the wall. _How far in the future? Will I tell myself? I suppose I would if I remembered telling myself…_

He poured another glass of water for himself, reasoning the self that was actually puking would definitely want a glass of water. Indeed, when he walked into the bathroom, his other self immediately stuck out the hand that wasn’t clinging to the toilet bowl. Morty put the glass into his hand wordlessly and watched him swill and spit most of the glass before getting up to refill the glass from the sink to take a proper drink. Morty stared at himself, trying to gauge how far in the future he’d come from. He didn’t worry about the _how_ ; he’d probably tell himself soon, if he could.

He recognized the purple jumper and formerly white trousers as ones he presently owned and was quite fond of, but they’d clearly been through a lot more wear and tear than they presently had. His future self’s hair wasn’t any longer than his presently was, but maybe he’d cut it back to that length. His future self _was_ looking very grey and haggard, which made part of Morty hope that he was coming from a _long_ way in the future. He tried surreptitiously checking himself in the bathroom mirror and caught the reflection of Eusine grinning at him.

“Do _not_ say whatever it is you’re thinking… right… now…” he said, spinning around and trailing off as his future self also turned around and said the exact same thing at the exact same time.

“Thanks,” his future self said, setting the glass down and leaning against the bathroom counter, which Morty liked doing because it was at exactly the right height to sit on a little while leaning. “I know it was weird that I said that at the same time, but I remember me doing it. I remember all of this pretty clearly… well, as clearly as I remember anything right now.” He rubbed his forehead with a sigh. “Where you are now is where I was a week ago, but I think I’ve slept maybe… sixteen hours…? In the week in between…” He slumped a bit more, catching himself on the edge of the counter. He really did look exhausted. “You need to… get dressed and go. Now. You’ll make it exactly on time…”

“Where?” Morty said, pulling one of his other self’s arms over his shoulders and nodding to Eusine to take the other side. “Where do I need to go?”

“The shrine in Ilex Forest,” his other self mumbled as they dragged him through to their bedroom. He looked through half-closed eyes at Morty, who was quite sure that his eyes did _not_ normally glow green. The green slowly died down, leaving his future self’s eyes a familiar dark purple, but a light green ring remained around his pupils. “Celebi is the one… Saylee will be there too. She’ll… come with you… help you when… you’re weak…” He sighed as they set him down on the bed and promptly dropped off to sleep.

Morty opened his cupboard and pulled out the trousers his future self was wearing, sighing sadly at how clean and white they were compared to his future self’s filthy clothes. He started getting changed while Eusine started taking the dirty clothes off of his heavily sleeping other self, glancing from one Morty to the other the whole time.

“So,” he began.

“I can’t stay,” Morty sighed, pulling his jumper over his head and grabbing his scarf and headband. “You heard me.”

“I was just going to say,” Eusine said quickly, “that, well… Celebi, huh? So that’s the one?”

“It would explain the family proclivity for visions of the past and future,” Morty said. “Who knows, my ancestors’ temporal confusion could be an effect of my possession by Celebi, travelling backwards in time like ripples.”

“Are you excited?” Eusine asked, beginning to fold the filthy clothes before wrinkling his nose and throwing them at the trash chute by the door. “Scared? Bit of both?”

“Irrationally, yes,” Morty admitted. “I mean, I _know_ I’ll make it back okay.” He pointed at himself, sleeping deeply on the bed. “But I can’t help being a little apprehensive about what he meant about what will happen in my next personal week…” he frowned. “I said Saylee Pryce was with me. Where is she now?”

“I’ll… ask you when you wake up, eh?” Eusine said, walking over and squeezing Morty’s hands. “And as you’ve seen… I’ll be here for you when you get back.”

“I don’t need to see the future to know that,” Morty said, leaning in and giving him a kiss before slipping out of his dojo as dawn broke over the trees.

{}

“You,” Saylee said as Charlotte dragged the two poachers towards Baoba’s nearest security office, “have no idea how lucky you are.”

“Lucky?” the guy said incredulously, jangling the handcuffs that Saylee had slapped on him.

“Forgive me for not leaping for joy about getting _caught_ ,” the girl said acidly.

“You’re _lucky_ because we caught you before you got to the Cyndaquil eggs,” Saylee said pointedly.

“Aye, some ay them Typhlosion would ay burnt yer bones tae a crisp,” Mary added. “We got a mate named Chip there, and he’s a nice bloke, but he’s got _issues_ wi poachers, ye ken?” The Ampharos was walking along beside Charlotte, ready to taze the poachers if they managed to slip Charlotte’s grip and run. “Tends tae get a wee bit burn-happy, if ye catch ma drift.”

The poachers wilted, and Saylee was able to safely deposit them with a security guard at the office.

“They’ve got priors,” the security guard said, locking them up. “A _lot_ of priors. I really don’t know why they don’t jack it in and get real jobs by now.”

“Who can fathom the criminal mind?” Saylee said, signing off for them. “Let me know if anything comes up.”

“Will do,” the officer promised. “Safe trip home!”

“When’s the next train, anyway?” Mary asked hopefully. “Are we heading straight back hame?”

“Well, I should probably head back to my grandparents’ first and apologize for vanishing in the middle of the night,” Saylee said with a yawn. The two poachers hadn’t been terribly hard to find, but there were very few humans that were tolerated in the far reaches of the Safari Zone, not even most of the park rangers. _They really do have incredible luck, to get as far as they did without being caught by anyone but me_ , Saylee thought, reaching into her pocket as her pokégear buzzed. _Granny or Granddad probably noticed I was missing…_ “Hello?” she said, picking up.

“ _Saylee_.”

Saylee frowned. The voice wasn’t either of her grandparents, and while it sounded like a young woman, it didn’t sound like her cousin Lucy either. She pulled her pokégear away from her ear to look at the caller ID. It was the ID of the Viridian Gym phone, but the voice wasn’t Daisy. “Hello?” she said tentatively. “Who is this?”

“ _You._ ”

“What about me?” Saylee asked in confusion. “Who is this?”

“ _No, I mean I’m you. Sar Saylee Pryce._ ”

“…what?” Saylee asked, growing even more confused. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“ _I’m really, really, REALLY tired, so forgive me if I don’t explain this clearly… uhh… okay, so you need to go to Celebi’s Shrine in Ilex Forest right now. You have to help Morty._ ”

“Morty is… going to be Celebi?” Saylee realized. “That actually explains a lot.”

“ _Tell me about it. You need to protect him. He’s going to fling you back and forth around time, but don’t worry about it, you’ll make it back. I mean, I have already. Oh, and return Charlotte as soon as you get there… and hold your breath when you see the shrine flash._ ” The woman on the other end of the phone yawned hugely.

“Is this really me, though?” Saylee asked. “I mean, the Celebi idea makes sense, but—”

“ _Is that really what my voice sounds like? That’s what I thought,_ ” the woman said. “ _I’m walking with Charlotte and Mary. We found those two poachers trying to steal Cyndaquil eggs… gods, that feels like forever ago. The teenage boy with the purple hair and the snippy girl with red hair. I was thinking that they’re some of the luckiest idiots I’ve ever seen, getting as far as they did without getting caught by any of the Typhlosion. The name of the guard in the office who signed off for them was Frank. I thought this call was from Granny and Grandad, who I was visiting… whoops. I’d better call them and tell them that I wound up back home in Kanto. Does that convince you?_ ”

“Yeah,” Saylee said, showing Mary’s pokéball to her to let the Ampharos know she was about to be returned. Mary nodded, and Saylee returned her. “I guess I’d better go, then.”

“ _You’ll be just in time. And you’ll be fine. Remember, hold your breath!”_

The other her yawned again and then hung up. Saylee stared at the pokégear for a long moment, then looked up at a confused-looking Charlotte.

“What was that about?” the Charizard asked.

“We have to go to Ilex Forest,” Saylee said, climbing up onto her Charizard’s back. “I think we’re going to time travel.”

{}

Dawn was just breaking over Ilex Forest as Morty made his way towards the Shrine of Celebi. He hadn’t visited it often; his focus had always been on Ho-oh, and he’d never spared too much of a thought towards Celebi, even though, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Celebi’s powers were obviously in line with his own powers of prophecy.

The trees rustled as something large swooped overhead. Morty reached the clearing with the shrine just as a large Charizard was landing. Sar Saylee of Kanto dismounted from its back and returned it to its pokéball.

“I heard that you’d be here,” Morty said, waving to her.

“I heard the same thing about you,” Saylee said, stifling a yawn. “Sorry, I spent half the night following up a call about poachers and then flew straight here… I thought about catching a nap first, since I heard that I’d be here on time, but I decided not to risk it.”

“Well, here we are,” Morty said, gesturing to the shrine as a green glow appeared within.

“Morty,” Saylee said seriously. “Are you ready for this? You saw what happened to Silver…” she looked down, folding her arms.

“Celebi isn’t as powerful as Ho-oh,” Morty assured her. “Even so… even if it does hurt, I feel like… it’s meant to happen, and in the end, it’ll all fit together.” He smiled. “My feelings tend to work out to be true, so often that sometimes I think it frankly infuriates Eusine…”

Saylee laughed. “Well, I hope you’re right,” she said, running her hand through her short hair. “I’m here to protect you, I understand.”

“I couldn’t possibly be in safer hands,” Morty said, reaching out to open the shrine.

They were almost blinded by the outpouring of green light as Celebi flew out of the shrine and circled them.

“You’re here!” she giggled happily. “I could say I’ve been waiting, but that’s a lie. I never have to wait!”

“Can I ask something, Celebi?” Morty said, staring at the tiny green Pokémon as she fluttered in the air. “What happens to you? When you merge with me… I’ve met the boys who merged with Lugia and Ho-oh, and they still seemed… themselves.”

“Oh, I’ll still be in there,” Celebi said with a smile. “Maybe one day, several avatars down the line, I’ll fade away, but I won’t feel it. And I’ll be watching. I’ve been looking forward to it, you know. I’ve been all _over_ time and space and seen so many new things there aren’t any left… but they’ll be new to _you_!” She did a happy flip in the air. “The excitement of new experiences… I can’t wait to feel that from you!” She held out a hand. “It’ll take a while to get the hang of it, but I promise it’ll be fun!”

Saylee stepped closer as Morty held out his hand to Celebi. She squealed and hugged him. “Morty!” Saylee shouted, grabbing his shoulder as they all vanished into green light.


	2. Chapter 2

When the green light faded, Saylee couldn’t breathe.

She gasped as absolute cold scythed through her, and no air entered her lungs. Her whole body went numb; she couldn’t feel a thing except for the fire in her lungs and Morty’s arm under her hand, shaking as he convulsed.

All around them was darkness, split by the distant points of stars. Beneath them was a vast, cracked expanse of white.

Silently, for no noise could travel through the void, parts of the cracked whiteness began to float away and disintegrate. As Saylee’s vision blacked out, she thought she saw a giant eye staring at her…

Then the darkness was total.

{}

Saylee awoke to find herself wrapped in fire.

“Oh good, you’re awake.”

Saylee brushed away the slightly warm and very ticklish fire and squinted around for her glasses. Something pressed them into her hand. She put them on and stared up at the Pokémon standing over her, stirring the fire with a twig.

It looked like a Ninetales on its hind legs, but its fur was mostly yellow, with huge orange tufts growing out of its large ears and long red fur covering its legs like a skirt.

“Where… am I?” Saylee asked, slowly sitting up and looking around. The room was a sterile white, and something was beeping faintly somewhere, suggesting to her a hospital room. She was in a comfortable bed, the back of which rose up behind her to turn into a seat when she sat up, but when she looked around she spotted Morty, floating in some kind of clear pod full of fluid. The beeping was coming from a holographic display on the wall behind him, which seemed to be monitoring things like his pulse.

“What are you doing to him?!” Saylee gasped, throwing the blanket off of her legs and feeling vaguely relieved though confused that nobody had changed her or Morty into hospital clothes.

“Please calm down, Sar Kanto,” the Pokémon said, stepping into her way “You are in the medical wing of the SS Deoxys, and that suspension fluid is designed to soothe the merging of new avatars.”

“What do you mean, _designed_ to soothe avatars?” Saylee demanded, feeling bewildered. “How? Did one of Ethan’s doctors figure it out—or Silver’s—or—”

“ _Please_ calm down,” the Pokémon repeated. “And please, bear in mind what Celebi is.”

In front of Saylee’s bed, a door slid open and a purple-and-white Blissey bounced in.

“You bothing the myst patients, Blaise?” he asked, shoving the strange Pokémon away.

“I’m just trying to calm her down,” Blaise insisted. “She was panicked and disoriented when she woke up.”

“Go form the Grand Duchess she’s wake,” the Blissey said, shooing Blaise out of the room. “She wanted be formed.”

“Please relax, Sar Kanto,” Blaise said, bowing and leaving.

 _…Wait, how does he know my name_? Saylee said, patting around for her things. Her bag was lying next to her, though it was cold to the touch. “Um… the… this ship,” Saylee asked. “Where is it going? How’d we get onboard?”

“Gammy thing, Sar, but you just potted up in green flash!” the Blissey said, tucking Saylee blanket around her legs again. “Both you, abby froze and gasping… Grand Duchess ordered you looked after, though, so here we are.” He bustled over to check on Morty. “For where we go, I hope you’re looking to Alpha Vetinari, because we’re well in hyper now and will be till we wash there in three days.”

Saylee rubbed her head, wondering if her being recently unconscious was why she couldn’t understand half of what the Blissey was saying. She looked over the pokéballs in her jacket pocket, making sure she could name the Pokémon in each one, and they came to her easily, so her brain was working fine.

She got up and wandered over to where Morty was floating. She reached out curiously to touch the pod and yanked her hand back with a yelp as it sank in. The pod wasn’t solid at all, merely a floating bubble of warm, sticky liquid.

“Don’t touch, please, Sar,” the Blissey snapped, reading the readouts above the pod. “You might jolt them.”

“What’s Alpha Vetinari?” Saylee asked, wiping her hand, though nothing seemed to have actually stuck to it. It was slowing dawning on her that, though Blaise had said that they were on a ship, she couldn’t feel the roll of waves. “Is it a country?”

“Alpha Vetinari? A country? Did you nump your head, Sar?” the Blissey said, patting Saylee’s hair with a worried frown. “It’s the peoplest planet in the Ankh ‘stem!”

“A… planet?” Saylee said in shock. “We’re in _space_?”

“Top way get to other ‘stems, Sar,” the Blissey said, looking curiously at her as if trying to figure out if she was entirely sane.

 _Space?!_ Saylee thought in shock. _Going to another planet?! That’s impossible! The next closest star is something like two hundred million years away, we don’t even_ know _if there are other planets, how—_

 _“Please, bear in mind what Celebi is._ ”

“…of course,” she sighed as everything clicked. “We’re in the future.”

Morty opened his eyes, and they glowed green.

{}

“Oh, no,” Blaise muttered, running ahead of his trainer and into the medical bay which was now empty save for a shrieking Blissey. “What happened?” he asked.

“Sar Kanto grabbed the sleeper and they both turned green and potted!” the Blissey gabbled. “Oh, your grace, forgive me… you wanted speak them, right?”

“Don’t worry about it,” the Grand Duchess assured her with a smile. “They’ve just gone back where they belong, that’s all…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally posted in honour of a holy day. Happy 66th Birthday, Sir Terry Pratchett! Seriously, Discworld is probably one of the greatest influences on the way I write and the way I think, and every book Sir Pratchett has ever written is a holy text that all should read and love. Free cake to whoever catches the references in this chapter.
> 
> (Also, the Blissey talks weird because language evolves and they’re millions and millions of years in the future and I wanted to muck about.)


	3. Chapter 3

“What are they?”

“Are they some weird kinda Machoke?”

“They’re all skinny and pink! They have _fur_!”

“’S why I said _weird_ …”

Saylee shook off the fuzziness and looked around. They were in a sweltering jungle and curious, tiny orange Pokémon like skinny Mankey were dangling off of branches and peering at them. They all hopped back nervously as Morty groaned, clutching his head.

“What’s happening…?” he moaned. “Where are we…?”

“You’re hopping us back and forth through time,” Saylee told him. “You have to calm down and focus.”

“They talk!” one of the Pokémon said in awe.

“Yes, of course we talk,” Saylee said, looking up at the Pokémon. “Can you tell us where we are? Are there other humans nearby?”

“I dunno,” one of them volunteered. “What type’s a humans?”

Morty doubled over, clutching his stomach as he threw up. Saylee grabbed his hair to hold it back, staring in horror at the vomit, which contained splashes of blood. Morty convulsed again, and in a green flash, the jungle vanished.

{}

The noise slammed into Saylee a second before the stench did. Blood, burnt flesh and screaming surrounded her. She stumbled over something and both she and Morty went sprawling on the ground, which was lumpy and sticky. A second after they fell, Saylee felt terrific heat wash over them. She turned her head just enough to see blue fire blasting through where they’d been, causing renewed screaming from the people and Pokémon that had been standing in front of them. She looked down to see that what she’d tripped on was a human corpse, wearing armour and holding a sword. It was lying on the burnt and mangled bodies of other humans and Pokémon. All around them, living humans and Pokémon were loudly endeavouring to add to the carpet of corpses.

The fire stopped, although the victims kept burning, their screaming steadily fading as they died and were overwhelmed by the noise of the battle.

“Tobias!” Saylee cried, releasing her Togetic. “Get us out of here!”

Tobias didn’t need to be told twice. There was another flash, pink this time, and they were among trees. The noise and stench of the battle was still close by, but it was visible through the trees. They were no longer in the thick of it, and had the space to breathe.

“Where are we?” Tobias asked, bewildered.

“I tried to… go forwards… but not too far…” Morty groaned, retching again.

“Hang on,” Saylee said, holding his hair back again and rubbing his back. “Don’t push it or you’ll hurt yourself. Morty!” She tried to catch him as he passed out, but she only managed to pull him aside enough that they didn’t fall over in a puddle of vomit since he was bigger and heavier than her.

“I don’t know where or when we are,” she said, rolling Morty onto his side so he wouldn’t choke if he threw up again, “but I want to get _away_ from that battle.” She made a face at the sticky mix of blood, mud and other miscellaneous body fluids that was splattered all over her, trying to wipe some of it off on the cold grey bark of the tree next to her.

“Do you know what _those_ are?” Tobias asked pointing a wing at what sky was visible through the trees, which were completely bare of leaves. Saylee realized that it was probably winter, but the air was charged with heat from the fires and the rolling black thunderclouds overhead.

Two tremendous winged creatures flew overhead, shrieking furiously. One was black, and the thunderclouds seemed to be forming from its tail. It spat bolts of lightning at the giant white Pokémon, and every time it did a second bolt of lightning hit the battlefield, taking out people and Pokémon indiscriminately. The constant roar of thunder added to the cacophony of the battlefield. The white one was fighting back with fire, which was also burning indiscriminately across the battlefield whenever it missed.

“What the hell…?” Saylee muttered.

“Halt right there! Put your hands up!”

Saylee slowly raised her hands and turned. Several men in armour were shouting incomprehensibly at her, but among them were a number of red humanoids in tatty white clothes. While they were human in shape, their faces, hands and skin colour were not, and Saylee could understand what they were shouting, so they had to be Pokémon.

“I’m not here for trouble,” she called. “I’m not fighting.” The men in armour levelled swords at her, shouting in a language unknown to Saylee. “I’m sorry, I haven’t got a clue what you’re saying,” Saylee said. The Pokémon stared at her, looking confused.

“Here,” one of them said, “how come she’s speaking like us?”

“Bet she ain’t human really,” said another. “Bet you she’s a Zoroark spy!”

“And what’re you?” another said, pointing at Tobias.

“I’m a Togekiss,” he said, “and these humans are from a foreign land. They are not here to fight with you.”

One of the humans shouted, waving his sword.

“Come with us and you won’t get hurt,” one of the Pokémon said when Saylee didn’t move.

“What about my friend? He’s ill, he’ll need carried,” Saylee said, nodding towards Morty.

“Leave ‘im,” the Pokémon said, approaching Saylee. “Move _now_.”

“I’m not leaving him,” Saylee snapped. “ _You_ leave now before you get hurt.”

One of the Pokémon laughed, grabbing her arms. “What’re _you_ gonna do?”

“I didn’t say _I_ was going to hurt you,” Saylee said sweetly as Tobias’ eyes glowed pink.

The red-skinned Pokémon all keeled over in an instant. _Fighting-types_ , Saylee thought, rubbing the bruises on her arms where the one had grabbed her. _Figures_.

She released Charlotte, drawing shocked and frightened shouts from the soldiers. “I think we’re before pokéballs by several hundred years at least,” Tobias said, helping Saylee lift Morty onto Charlotte’s back. One soldier waved a sword at them and Charlotte melted it.

“Alright,” Saylee said, climbing onto Charlotte’s back and propping up the unconscious Morty. “Let’s go!”

Charlotte shot up through the bare trees, leaving the yelling soldiers behind. She rose to a height where she barely brushed the tips of the dead winter trees and started flying away from the battle. Within moments they were chased by slender white bird Pokémon.

“They’re using Bubblebeam!” Saylee cried as the Pokémon sprayed surprisingly lethal bubbles at them. Charlotte roared in pain and dropped a couple of feet as one hit her tail.

Saylee grabbed Mary’s pokéball and released her Ampharos. Tobias swooped to catch his mate on his back as she materialized in the air. “Mary, use Charge Beam to wipe them out!” Saylee called.

“What the hell are they?!” Mary called as she zapped on shrieking bird after another out of the sky. “Ooft, feel that leccy in the air! That’s chargin’ me _right_ up! What the bloody hell are _they_?”

“I don’t know, but we’re flying _away_ from them!” Saylee shouted over the roar of Thunder, looking around just in time to see a tremendous bolt of lightning hit the white dragon. “Avoid settlements! Find some more forest somewhere!”

They flew, occasionally fending off pursuers, until they were on the opposite side of a mountain from the battle. When they flew over some farm fields, the people and Pokémon in them cowered, but didn’t attack. The air got colder as they escaped the musk of the battlefield. One lake that they passed over was entirely iced over.

“Whit’s gaun on then?” Mary asked as they carefully descended through the trees around village.

“Morty is Celebi now, and he’s still getting the hang of the whole leaping through time and space thing,” Saylee said. “We’re in some past war in another country.”

“Bloody hell,” Mary muttered.

“Once Morty recovers and gets the hang of things, I’m sure he’ll get us back,” Tobias reassured her.

“Aye, well, I just hope he gets a shift on,” Mary grumbled. “I’m feelin’ sick noo. That was a lot o’ leccy, but it wasnae _good_ leccy. It’s powerful, aye, but… sour. Fae killin’, ye ken?”

“All the ash and heat in the air back there tasted like corpses,” Charlotte mumbled. “I don’t like it.”

She landed gently on the frozen ground. The battlefield had been hot with fire and lightning, but out here it was cold and still.

“Well, we’re only here until Morty recovers enough to move us,” Saylee said, dismounting. “For now, let’s make camp.”

{}

Saylee’s concessions to data storage extended to food and medicines. A person couldn’t carry enough of either, in her opinion, and as such her databag contained enough food to feed an army for a year and enough medicinal supplies to furnish a hospital. Still, she automatically started rationing herself, eating as little as she dared before returning to the concern of keeping Morty warm.

“He’s as grey as the trees,” Charlotte commented, shifting a leg for him to lie against while Saylee and Mary put him in Saylee’s sleeping bag.

“Celebi is a forest spirit as well as a time traveller,” Tobias pointed out. “This dead winter forest may be affecting him.”

Saylee zipped up her coat a little more and huddled close to Charlotte. “I’d like to find him some evergreens, but I don’t want to keep moving him…” she sighed.

“I could scout for some,” Tobias offered.

Saylee shook her head. “If he wakes up and accidentally time-jumps, you could be stuck here,” she pointed out. “No. If I’m honest, I’d rather return you and Mary for now. Charlotte and I can stick close to him.”

“Fair enough,” Mary said. “Yous be careful, awright? Call us as soon as you need anythin’.”

“Don’t worry,” Saylee said, returning them. “I will.”

“It’s dark already,” Charlotte pointed out. “Why don’t’ you get some sleep? I’ll stay awake and keep guard.”

“Thanks, Charlotte,” Saylee said, shoving her hands in her pockets for warmth. One hand brushed her pokégear. She pulled it out, staring at the “NO SIGNAL” screen.

 _I got back before I left,_ she reminded herself. _Mum and Blue and Silver have no reason to worry…_ she glanced at Morty. _Or Eusine. I told myself that Morty got me back safe…_

She huddled closer to Charlotte’s side, staring up at the stars through the trees. She didn’t see any constellations that she recognized. From the looks of the Pokémon, she was definitely a long, long way from home, in more ways than one.

She couldn’t sleep. She sat up all night, listening to Pokémon moving around in the darkness. She’d heard herself speak, reassuring herself that she’d make it home alright, but she had no way of knowing that that wasn’t the result of constant vigilance.

She was still awake when dawn broken and Morty opened his eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Saylee managed to grab Morty’s shoulder and put her hand on Charlotte’s side right before the green light consumed them.

Charlotte roared in fright as the forest vanished and stone walls closed around them. Saylee and Morty both dropped onto cobbles.

“Charlotte! It’s okay, calm down, it’s okay,” Saylee said soothingly as Charlotte looked around in a panic. “We just jumped.”

“Where are we?” Charlotte said, tucking her wings into herself as she looked around the tight alleyway. She sniffed the air. “This place… there’s something… _weird_ here. I feel… odd…”

“I don’t know where or when we are,” Saylee said, crouching next to Morty, who was still in her sleeping bag. She started unzipping the bag. The air was much warmer, and the sun was blazing down on them from overhead. “Morty? Morty, are you okay?”

“Uhn…” Morty rubbed his eyes, putting his hand to the wall and staggering to his feet. “Where did I bring us now…?” he started coughing, getting steadily worse until he doubled over and throwing up again.

“Don’t worry about where and when we are, Morty,” Saylee said, rolling up her sleeping bag. “You need to stop time-jumping and give your body time to heal and adjust. Do you think you can control it at all?”

“Yeah, uh… I think if I can stay awake, I’ll be able to feel it coming and… I dunno… push it back down or… urk…” he clutched his stomach as he puked.

“Maybe you need to focus on pushing that down,” Saylee said, rubbing his back. “Charlotte, I’ll put you back in your pokéball for now, okay? I don’t think we’re anywhere dangerous.” While the alley was a dead end one way, around the corner at the other she could hear people and traffic. She returned Charlotte to her pokéball, slung her bag and sleeping bag over her shoulder, and put one of Morty’s arms over her shoulders. “Can you walk, Morty? I’d really like to get you out of this back alley and into somewhere safe.” Morty nodded, pressing his other hand over his mouth as he staggered towards the alley corner with her support.

“Y’a quelqu’un?”

“Hello?” Saylee said in response as she dragged Morty down the alley. “Is someone there?”

An elderly man with short grey hair and a deeply tanned, wrinkled face peered around the corner at them. “Ah,” he said, walking towards them. Despite the hot weather, he was wearing white slacks and a long-sleeved, bright green shirt with a haphazard pattern of bright flowers and birds stitched into it. “Let me help you carry your friend. He needs to rest.”

“Thank you, but I’ve… oh, okay,” Saylee said in surprise as the man pulled Morty’s other arm over his shoulders and immediately took almost all of Morty’s weight with no sign of strain. “He’s been throwing up a lot but, uh, it’s not a contagious illness or anything, I swear…” She kept glancing over at the man. When she wasn’t looking directly at him, when he was only in the corner of her eye, his shape shifted slightly, but when she looked directly at him, he looked like a normal human man.

“I know,” he said calmly. “He is Celebi, yes? You will be safe at my Bureau, Sar Kanto. I will help you look after him. He is not the only god who can deal in time.”

{}

The Bureau was a little brownstone building a few streets away. The elderly man helped carry Morty inside and lay him down on the couch in the comfy-looking office on the ground floor.  There was a desk in the middle of the room, with a little kitchenette behind it, and a couple of couches around a coffee table by the front window. “I am sorry for the mess,” the old man said sheepishly. “My daughter who lives here, she is on an investigation now and will not be back for a few days. I will find where is the lemonade. When it is hot, cold drinks are best, no?” He opened the fridge and grinned proudly as he grabbed the bottle of lemonade.

“Thank you,” Saylee said, sitting down on the couch across from Morty. He was still grey-faced and clutching his stomach, but he’d stopped throwing up and was breathing a little more easily. “Can I ask who you are and how you know about Celebi?”

“Can you not see?” the old man said, picking a couple of clean glasses off of the draining board and filling them with lemonade. “I think you do not know me yet, but by now maybe you are able to already see people who are also Pokémon?”

Saylee stared at him, then tipped her head slightly so that he was in the corner of her eye. He looked like an old man, but he also shifted in some imperceptible way. She pulled off her glasses, staring at him with unfocused eyes, as if looking at a magic eye puzzle. When she did so, he appeared to develop some kind of blue sheen, even though he was wearing nothing blue. “You’re an avatar,” she realized. “Another time god?” She looked back at Morty, and he, too, had an odd look, as if he was glowing slightly green. She put her glasses back on. “Are you able to take us back to our own time?”

“I would very much like to, but for him, this would not be well,” the old man said, walking over and handing Saylee some lemonade. He handed the other glass over to Morty and then sat down on the couch next to Saylee. “Drink, young man. I cannot move you because you are time jumper, and very ill besides. But I can maybe help you, yes? I will help you learn to control how you move in time. You are very new. It will be easier.”

“Thank you very much,” Morty said, sitting up and taking a sip of lemonade. “Did you know we were going to appear?”

“When you appeared, I felt this,” the old man said. “It is very familiar. You and I, young man, have met very many times already, but for you, not yet. When I saw you very ill, and with Sar Kanto, I know that you must now be new to Celebi.”

“Do you know me?” Saylee asked. “I mean, I don’t think I know you, but I know we’re in the future, so…”

“Yes, for you there is very much that is yet to come,” the old man said with a smile. “I do not think I will say more, except to say this: do not lose hope. All will be well. From me, these are more than mere comforting words, they are fact. So do not ever lose hope, Sar Kanto. All will be well.”

Saylee smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “Can you tell me where we are, at least?”

“Kalos,” the man said. “Yes, I see your confusion, you do not yet know this land. You will.”

“You’ve swung right back into ominous again,” Saylee warned, sipping her lemonade.

Morty drained his lemonade, looking a little revived. The old man immediately took the empty glass and went to refill it. “Thank you,” Morty said. “I—ah.” He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing a hand to his forehead.

“Morty, are you alright?” Saylee said, standing up. The old man hurried back to Morty’s side, putting a hand over Morty’s on his forehead.

“You can feel it coming, yes?” the old man said. “You feel the pull, but you must stay here, you must stay now. You know you must. Learn to push it down and you will learn to pull it out when you need. You feel it, yes?”

“Yeah, it’s like… like…” Morty shook his head. “No, it’s more like… uh…” he raised his other hand, making a kind of wiggly motion. “You know?”

“Young man, because you are now a little part Pokémon, and a god Pokémon at that, do you know that now you can understand all languages of humans?” the old man said. “And in all of these many languages, I know none with words to adequately describe much of what you are feeling. It is not a normal experience for people or Pokémon, so the words do not exist until we make them up. Which we have, and will. For now, please know that yes, I know what you mean. And perhaps it will help if you push, like so…” he lowered his hand, rotating it the whole way.

“Oh… right,” Morty said, nodding and looking a little less pained. “Like… yes, that does work… but it still feels kind of…” he waved his hand at his chest a couple of times. “You know?”

“Because you are not in your… I think the best word here is proper time,” the old man said. “But if you, like so…”

Saylee drained her lemonade as Morty and the old man continued to converse vaguely and mostly in confusing hand gestures. “You don’t have a shower you could use, do you?” she asked the old man. “It’s kind of been a while since I’ve had one and I don’t know how long it’ll be until I see another one.”

“Upstairs and on the right,” the old man said, pointing at the staircase. “My daughter’s towels are in the cupboard on the right of the sink. I will make sure that Morty does not leave without you.”

“Thanks,” Saylee said, leaving them to their strange conversation.

{}

By the time Saylee returned from the shower, Morty was looking much better. Some colour had returned to his cheeks and he was even eating a sandwich.

“Are you feeling any better?” Saylee asked him.

“Getting there,” Morty said with a shrug. “It takes a lot of focus, but… I think I can control when I jump. When and where I jump _to_ might take practice.”

“Rest and get your strength back up, first,” Saylee assured him. “We’ve got all the time in the world to get back. Literally. Thank you,” she said, slightly surprised, as the old man handed her a sandwich as well. “It means a lot, you looking after us like this.”

“I am repaying, in a way,” the old man said with a smile. “How do they say—paying it forward, perhaps? Besides, I have seen Morty many times in his travels and mine, but you, it is very strange to see you so young, even younger than my daughters. I feel like I must feed you.”

“Thanks,” Saylee said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Is that honey?”

“Honey and peanut butter, yes,” the old man said. “There is very nice honey here in Kalos, because of how the Combee and the Floette live together. Sit down and eat. You Kanto people, you never eat enough.”

“I think I’ll get a shower myself,” Morty said, standing up, “if that’s alright.”

“Of course, of course,” the old man said, waving to the stairs. “I will know if you by accident leave, and I will bring you back. Go, go!” He shooed Morty up the stairs before getting himself a glass of lemonade and sitting down across from Saylee. “I can see that you have many questions…”

“I can’t _not_ ask,” Saylee pointed out.

“And I do not think it is appropriate that I answer,” the old man countered. “Many things, they are in flux, you see? And there are also many things that you cannot change, but by knowing them, your head will be very much a mess for a very long time. It is better that you ask me nothing of your future.”

“I have to,” Saylee pressed. “Just one. _Please_.”

“You can ask, but I will not answer,” the old man said firmly.

“I just need to know if he ever gets caught,” Saylee asked, leaning forwards. “Giovanni. Even if it isn’t by me. Somewhere in the world, someday, does anybody ever catch him?”

The old man frowned. “I cannot give you information on that man’s fate,” he said warningly.

“But that means you have it,” Saylee pointed out. “You know what happens to him in the end. He doesn’t stay vanished forever. And the second he sticks his head above water, I fully intend to be there to push it back under and hold it. Thank you.” She smiled brightly at the old man and went back to eating her sandwich.

The old man stared to her, then chuckled to himself. “You always have such a very strange kind of optimism,” he mused.


	5. Chapter 5

Saylee slept fitfully in the old man’s daughter’s bedroom. She knew she needed to get some proper rest, but every single sound in the night jerked her awake. She figured that not knowing where or when she was wasn’t helping. She didn’t want to snoop around the room, but she did look at some of the photos on the walls while getting ready for bed and took the old man’s daughter to be the young woman with the messy, curly black hair and big smirk in most of the photos.

When dawn started to creep through the windows, she gave up, got dressed and went downstairs in search of breakfast. She found the old man and Morty already awake and talking quietly by the front window.

“Did you get any sleep?” she asked Morty with concern.

“I couldn’t,” Morty admitted, rubbing at the bags under his eyes self-consciously. “I want to master this as fast as possible so we can go home.” He smiled wanly. “I know that we’ll arrive at around the time that we left and that we’ll both be back alive eventually, but… I’d rather it be sooner than later. I miss Eusine.”

There was a sudden burst of noise from outside as a dark-skinned woman with short, bright pink hair started yelling furiously at a mohawk-sporting man in a ripped jacket. He shouted something back and she slapped him and stormed off. Morty and the old man both chuckled.

“I can’t say I’ve ever tried chatting up a girl, but even I can tell that line was never going to work,” Morty said, looking amused.

“What line?” Saylee asked curiously. “I didn’t know you spoke… whatever language they speak here.”

“What do you mean?” Morty asked, frowning.

“Ah, young man, did you forget?” the old man told him. “Pokémon, they can understand humans who are born in certain places no matter what their language. God Pokémon, they can understand all humans, and speak to all humans. To you, their speech sounds like Fairlan, yes? Because that is what you understand. Sar Kanto, having no such power, cannot understand Kalosian.”

“Ah… I see,” Morty said with a nod. “There are a lot of interesting side-effects to this god business, aren’t there?”

“Well, the geisha did once tell me that the gods and avatars are intended to be a bridge of communication between humans and Pokémon,” Saylee suggested. “I suppose it’s only natural that you can communicate with all of them.” _Of course, Mewtwo’s powers cut out the middle man, as it were,_ she remembered. _He achieved far more than the gods could and he did it by accident…_

“There is much more that you will only learn by doing,” the old man said, standing up. “You understand what I have told you about time, yes?”

“Yes, I do,” Morty said with a nod. “I think I understand a little more about how to use my powers, but you’re right. Using them will probably be the best way to learn.”

“Then I think you must have breakfast and go,” the old man declared, going over to his kitchen. “You must eat properly before travelling in time!”

{}

The green glow passed over them much more quickly than it had before. It seemed like only a blink between standing in the old man’s front room as he waved them off and standing in the middle of a desert. Looking around, Saylee could see nothing but sand in all directions. There were no clouds overhead, only the sun blazing mercilessly down on them.

“Where on earth is this?” Saylee said, letting go of Morty’s hand to pull her jacket off. She’d never felt so hot in her life. Morty slumped against her side, sliding to his knees. “Morty!”

“Sorry,” he muttered, wiping his forehead. “I think I overshot. It’s still… exhausting to do.”

“It’s a new muscle, you’re going to have to build it up,” Saylee said, releasing her Vaporeon. “Valentino, can you make some cold water for Morty to drink?”

“Sure thing,” Valentino said, glancing up at the sun. “Wow! That’s hot.” He shuddered. “Eurgh. I can feel it drying me out.” He tilted his head back, spraying water into the air like a fountain. Morty cupped his hands and filled them to drink from a few times.

“Thank you,” he said eventually, wiping his mouth. “I don’t want to keep you out for long if the heat’s drying you out.”

“I can feel more water that way,” Valentino said, flicking his tail off to the right. Saylee glanced up at the sun and calculated that the direction was north-west.

“Thank you, Valentino,” she said. “We might get you out whenever we need a drink, alright?”

“Sure,” Valentino said. “Man, having to walk through this heat has gotta _suck_. Glad I don’t have to do it.”

“You little squirt,” Saylee muttered, returning him and offering Morty a hand up. “Can you walk alright? I think the only one of my Pokémon who could stand this heat is Charlotte, but I think she might give us both heatstroke.”

“I can walk,” Morty said, pulling off his jumper and wrapping it around his head as a makeshift sunshade. “I hope it isn’t far.”

“It probably isn’t,” Saylee assured him. “I haven’t been to a desert before, but I don’t think Valentino has an extremely long range for sensing water. Where there’s water, there’s probably plants and shade. We can rest there until you’re ready to jump again.”

Putting Morty’s arm over her shoulders and an arm around his back to support him, they started to walk across the desert.

The desert was eerily quiet. There was no wind or any noise at all save the crunch of their feet in the sand and their own heavy breathing. Aside from occasionally releasing Valentino to get a refreshing drink of water, there was no other life around at all. It was a while before it really clicked with Saylee as to why this was so odd.

 _There’s no Pokémon,_ she realized. _How can that be? It isn’t as if there aren’t any that could live in this environment—fire, rock and ground Pokémon could all thrive quite well in the desert. Sandshrew and Sandslash originated in desert environments. So why hasn’t a single Pokémon appeared? If nothing else, we have to be a curiosity. I doubt humans normally go trekking across this desert…_

“What’s that?” Morty said hoarsely, pointing ahead of them. “There. Do you see it? Or am I hallucinating?”

“I see it,” Saylee said. There was a faint twinkle as the light of the sun reflected off of something. Slowly, as they walked towards it, a dot of green became visible in the endless brown landscape.

“That’s either an oasis or a mirage,” Saylee commented the next time they stopped for a drink.

“It’s real,” Valentino confirmed. “I can feel water there. What’s that sparkly thing?”

“Could be a solar panel,” Morty suggested. “There could be humans living there.”

“If there’s a solar panel, there’s a building, and that means shade and probably air conditioning,” Saylee said, returning Valentino and setting off with renewed vigour.

Slowly, they approached the growing dash of green, which turned out to be a large, empty expanse of grass. A hill rose up to the west, covered in surprisingly thick forest, but the only sign of people was a distant building.

“There aren’t any Pokémon here, either,” Morty said as they walked through the grass and towards a dirt road. “Did you notice?”

“I did,” Saylee confirmed. “It’s… weird. There are Pokémon _everywhere_ , right?”

“Well… not everywhere,” Morty said. “If we are where I think we are… we’ll want to leave as soon as possible.”

“Where are we?” Saylee asked. Morty just shook his head, focusing on walking towards the distantly-visible building with renewed vigour. As they approached, they saw that it was a two-storey structure of almost blinding white stone and glass, with a large pokéball statue on top.

“Look! People!”

“Hello?” Saylee called. Her vision was a little fuzzy with tiredness, but she spotted two little children peering at them from a window, a little boy with bright orange hair and an even littler girl with bright blue.

“Moooooommmmmmyyyyy!” the little boy called, shrinking away from the window as Saylee and Morty looked at him. “There’s people!”

A woman with curly brown hair hurried up to the children, pulling them away from the window and shooing them into the house. “Hello?” she called. “Who are you?”

“My name is Saylee, and this is Morty,” Saylee called back. “We got lost in the desert. Is it alright for us to get some water and shade to recuperate?”

“In the desert? What on earth were you doing there?” the woman said, looking startled. “Come around to the front porch of the lab. You can get shade there.” She gestured towards the front of the building, watching as Saylee and Morty headed around to the porch. She was waiting for them when they arrived at the front door, which was inside a blessedly cool enclave.

“Thank you,” Saylee said, helping Morty down and sitting down herself on the floor of the enclave once it became clear that they weren’t being invited in. “We won’t be long. We just need to rest a while.” She released Valentino.

“Oh, this is nice,” he said happily, shivering in the shade for a moment before spraying some water for Morty.

“You have Pokémon?” the woman said in surprise and not a little suspicion. “Where are you from?”

“Are we in Orre?” Morty asked, wiping his mouth.

“Yes, of course,” the woman said, continuing to watch Valentino suspiciously. “Are you foreigners? We don’t get tourists in Orre often. Never, actually. Certainly not out here.”

“We’re not tourists,” Saylee explained. “We teleported in by accident.” The woman still looked suspicious, and Saylee was starting to understand why. All of Orre’s wild Pokemon and most of its humans had been wiped out centuries before, in a war that had borne unsettling similarities to the course of the Kanto Civil War. The country had never recovered fully, remaining a mostly desert wasteland with no population of wild Pokémon and a vast gap between the rich and poor. The majority of the population lived below the poverty line and many of them sustained themselves through criminal activity, Saylee remembered reading, which explained the woman’s nervousness and barely concealed hostility around strangers.

“I’m a ranger in Kanto,” she said, trying to make herself sound less threatening, but the woman only looked more suspicious.

“Where are you really from?” she asked. “Everyone knows that Kanto’s too toxic for humans to live in these days. There’s nobody there. So what rock were you _really_ living under?”

“I warned you, I overshot,” Morty muttered. “I think we’re about ten years before we need to be.”

 _Before Kanto people started travelling to Johto and revealed that some of us were still alive,_ Saylee realized. _Somewhere out there, a younger me is travelling a poison wasteland with her family…_ “I’m sorry, you’re right,” she said. “I meant Johto. It’s the heat, you know, it’s frying my brain. I was born in Kanto, but my parents tell me they moved out long before the fighting started.”

The woman settled a little, but Saylee got the impression that she wouldn’t fully calm until Saylee and Morty were long gone. _Well, she doesn’t seem to have any Pokémon and she has two young children to protect,_ she reasoned. _No wonder she’s on edge._

“That feels so much better,” Morty sighed, rubbing at the backs of his calves. “We won’t trespass much longer, we promise. I just have to get my strength up a little more.”

“You can’t be too careful,” the woman said, folding her arms, “so I won’t be letting you in the lab, but you can rest out here all you want.”

“That’ll be enough, thank you,” Saylee assured her. She pulled off her shoes and started tipping sand out of them.

“We’re not criminals or anything,” Valentino said with a scowl. The lady glanced down at him.

“Does your Vaporeon need anything to eat?” she asked. “We have a little bit of Pokémon food around, and if he’s been acting as your water canteen across the desert, he must be tired.”

“Food sounds good!” Valentino said enthusiastically. The woman didn’t look at him. “Oi! Are you deaf?”

“Food would be great, thank you,” Saylee said. The woman nodded and stuck her head around the door.

“Michael! Fetch a bowl of Eddie’s food, will you?” she called.

“Hey! Why’s she ignoring me?” Valentino said in frustration.

“People from Orre can’t speak to Pokémon,” Morty explained. “She couldn’t understand what you were saying.”

“Wait, really? Some humans can’t understand Pokémon?” Valentino said in surprise.

“You’ve never met a human who can’t?” Morty asked.

“He was born and raised in Pallet and works with me in Johto and Kanto,” Saylee explained. “People can’t speak to Pokémon in most places, Valentino.”

“Weird,” Valentino muttered. The little orange-haired boy ran up to his mother, holding up a bowl of damp Pokémon food. She came back out and set the bowl down in front of Valentino.

“Thank you,” Saylee said. “Do you work here at the lab?”

“I do,” the woman replied. “My name’s Lily. I’m sorry, but I can’t discuss my research with you.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry,” Saylee said quickly. “Just making small talk. Awkward silences are a bit weird.”

Lily smiled slightly. “I suppose,” she said. “Where on earth are you trying to go?”

“Home,” Saylee replied. “We got very lost, and now we’re just trying to get back home.”

“Very lost indeed,” Lily muttered.

“I think I might be up for teleporting soon, so we’ll be on our way,” Morty promised.

“Are you sure?” Saylee asked in surprise. “That’s fast.”

“I’m getting better,” Morty said with a smile. “So whenever Valentino has—my goodness, did you stop for breath?”

“I have gills,” Valentino said, licking the last remnants of the food out of the now-empty bowl.

“Those only work underwater,” Saylee pointed out.

“Well, I was hungry,” Valentino replied. “Thanks for the food!” He licked Lily’s hand by way of a wordless show of appreciation.

“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile, understanding the message and giving him a little scratch behind the ears. “You two have a Pokémon that can teleport?”

“Sort of,” Morty said, standing up. He was looking a bit stronger, so Saylee returned Valentino and stood up as well. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t offer more,” Lily said, looking a little relieved that they were leaving without stealing anything or hurting anyone.

“Don’t worry, we understand,” Saylee said, taking Morty’s hand. “I’m ready if you are.”

Morty nodded and glowed green.

{}

Saylee stumbled a little on stone as they landed. They were in the middle of a moonlit plaza that seemed to be at the bottom of a valley. There were houses on the cliffs above them, but almost none had any lights on and the moon was high in the sky. It was very late at night.

“This shrine… it reminds me of Celebi’s,” Morty said, reaching out a hand to the large wooden shrine that was standing in the middle of the plaza. He slumped against one of the corner beams.

“You look really pale,” Saylee said with a frown. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Morty pulled his jumper off of his head and put it back on. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “This place is nice and cool after that desert. I’ll be okay once I catch my breath…” He slowly slid down to sit on the ground, his back to the shrine.

Saylee sat down next to him and glanced into the space under the shrine, which was raised a couple of feet off of the ground. There was what, at first glance, appeared to be a long crack in the wood, but on closer inspection was a gap in a slightly ajar trapdoor. Saylee pushed at it curiously and got a yelp and a _thump_ as somebody was knocked aside.

 “Hello?” she called, peering. “Is someone there?”

“Saylee?” Blue said, flicking on a flashlight and staring at her in surprise.

“Blue!” Saylee cried, climbing in and flinging her arms around his neck.

He hugged her back. “Good to see you too,” he said. “How did you find us?”

“What do you mean?” Saylee said, looking over his shoulder. A tall man with dark hair and glasses was trying to hide his face. “Who’s that guy? Blue, where are we?”

“What do you mean? He’s—Morty?” Blue said in surprise. Saylee let go of him, sitting down and looking at the trapdoor, where Morty was also climbing in. “What are you—oh. Wait. Have you just gotten your… y’know… thing?”

“Yes, yes I have,” Morty said, looking around and nodding at the man in the corner. “Can you tell us where and when we are, Blue?”

“Where and when you are?” the guy in the corner said in surprise. He flinched when Saylee looked his way.

“You guys are in Sinnoh,” Blue said, setting Saylee down. “And you’re about three years past where you need to be. At least, it was three years ago that you got your thing.”

“… _oh_ ,” Saylee realized with a sigh. “Damn. I thought we were home.”

“We’re almost there,” Morty said. “Three years is pretty close. If I’m careful not to overshoot, we should make it back pretty soon.”

“Good,” Saylee sighed. “So who _is_ that guy and why is he hiding? Hey, pal, I’m not going to hurt you… am I?” she glanced quizzically at Blue. “Why does this guy look scared that I’m going to hurt him?”

“Because when present you finds him, she’s probably going to hurt him,” Blue said, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s really, really complicated and I don’t think I can explain it to you yet…”

“Ugh! Future people never explain anything,” Saylee muttered. “They’re all ‘you’ll find out later’… So I’m out there somewhere, am I? If I met myself, would things explode? I think I saw a TV show once where they said the universe would explode if you met yourself.”

“Somehow, I doubt it,” Morty said with a shrug. “The old man in Kalos didn’t say anything about that, and it seems like the first thing you’d warn somebody about. Three years, did you say, Blue?”

“Wait, they travelled here in time?” the man with glasses asked. “How the hell do they do that?”

“You’ll find out later,” Morty promised. “Sorry to startle you two. It looks late, and I’m sure you want to sleep. Ready to time-jump again?”

“Sure,” Saylee said, giving Blue another hug. “I’m so ready to go home. I’ll see you there.”

“Yes, you did,” Blue said with a grin. “Morty, don’t drop her in a time-stream or let the universe explode or anything, will you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll escort the lady home safely,” Morty promised, reaching up to make sure that there was space above him so he could stand up.

“I’ve been protecting you, smartass,” Saylee said, standing up and taking his hand. “Ready.”

“Safe trip,” Blue said as they vanished into green light. The last thing Saylee heard was the other man yelping in shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while, but I have been overwhelmed by being within hugging distance of the fabulous Key-chan <3\. Most of this chapter pertains to future fic work that she is contributing to this ‘verse :) The next chapter of this mini-fic will be the last and will be published to coincide with the beginning of regular Calamity Calls posting.


	6. Chapter 6

Saylee felt her feet touch stone as the light died down, leaving them in total blackness. From the cold in the air around them and the smell of damp stone, she guessed that they were in a cave. “Where are we?” she whispered. “ _When_ are we?”

“Close,” Morty muttered, “but not quite…”

“H-hello? Is somebody there?”

“A little boy?” Morty said in surprise as a child’s voice trembled through the darkness.

Unsure of how much space was around her, Saylee pulled her pokégear out of her pocket and turned on the flashlight, shining it around her. She had been wrong about the cave; while there was stone all around them, it was carved in intricate murals, and the stone under their feet was covered in faded tiles—at least, where it hadn’t collapsed and fallen through completely. As her light flashed over one of the gaps, there was a gasp.

“Hello?” the child called again. “Please, can you help me? I’m stuck!”

“It’s okay, kiddo,” Saylee called. “We’re going to come down and get you.” She started edging tentatively across the floor, stopping when she felt the stone under her feet shift.

“This place is unstable,” Morty said, grabbing her wrist to steady. “If I’d thought to bring some of my ghosts, one of them could look around it…”

Saylee shone her flashlight around again to get a good look around the room. “I’ll try Toby,” she said, stepping back onto sturdier flooring and then releasing her Togekiss.

“When are we now?” Tobias asked, looking around. In the darkness, he glowed.

“I don’t know, but there’s a child trapped on the floor below,” Saylee said, shining her flashlight towards the gap that she was fairly sure that the child was under. “Can you take a look?”

Tobias floated across the floor, hovering in place with his wings outstretched. “Hello, little one,” he said softly, peering down into the hole. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” the little boy said. “But the stairs I climbed up fell down and I don’t know how to get out. Are you an angel?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” Tobias promised. “Lee, I can’t get through this hole. I’m going to have to knock down some of the floor to get to him.”

“This place doesn’t seem stable,” Morty commented with a frown. “What’ll happen to the rest of the floor?”

“There’s enough space in here for Charlotte if he does knock the floor down,” Saylee said, picking up her Charizard’s pokéball. “Make sure you don’t knock it down on his head, okay?”

“It’s okay, he’s right under the hole,” Tobias said, his glow intensifying as he charged up an Aura Sphere. “Don’t move, little one. I’ll come get you. Ready?”

“Ready!” the child called enthusiastically.

“Ready,” Saylee said, gripping Morty’s hand and hanging on to Charlotte’s pokéball.

Tobias fired off the Aura Sphere, cracked away a large section of floor. He flew through the resulting gap to reach the boy, but the floor continued to crack and fall below. Saylee and Morty stepped back quickly from the collapsing floor.

“Charlotte!” Saylee called, releasing her Charizard into the space created by the falling floor and jumping as the floor collapsed entirely underneath them. She landed somewhat lopsidedly on Charlotte’s back, and likely would have fallen off entirely if Morty hadn’t also landed lopsidedly on the other side. They managed to pull themselves together and looked around for Tobias and the child.

“We’re okay,” Tobias called, floating over to him. Clinging to his back was a skinny child of eight or nine, the excited pink flush in his cheeks clashing somewhat with his pale green hair.

“I think you broke _all_ the floors,” he said, peering over Tobias’ back at the darkness below them. Saylee winced at the continuing _crash_ of falling stone as floor after floor below them collapsed under the weight of falling stone from above. “I only broke a coupla stairs. Can you tell Mr Weaves it wasn’t me that broke all the tower? This place is real old and I’ll probably get in a lotta trouble.”

“I’m sure Mr Weaves will be glad to see that you’re safe,” Morty reassured him. “Thank you for the catch, Charlotte.”

“No problem,” Charlotte said, swishing her tail around to peer at the walls. “Are we breaking the Ruins of Alph? I didn’t think there was a tower there.”

“There isn’t,” Saylee said, looking at the little boy. “Can you tell us where we are, kiddo?”

“How’d you get here if you don’t know where you are?” the boy asked curiously.

“We’re rangers,” Tobias told him as Saylee and Morty floundered for a plausible answer. “We heard you calling for help and teleported to your side.”

“Wow!” the child said excitedly. “Mr Weaves told us that if you wanna be a trainer, an’ you get lost out in the wild, you can ask a ranger for help an’ they’ll help you.”

“That’s right,” Saylee agreed. “We heard you calling all the way out in Johto and decided to teleport here to help you. But we’re not in Johto now, are we?”

The boy shook his head. “You’re in Sky Pillar, in Hoenn,” he said, suddenly looking downcast. “I didn’t _mean_ to break the stairs, I swear! There was a rope over ‘em, but I snuck under it and climbed up anyway ‘cause… ‘cause I heard a voice.”

“A voice?” Morty asked. The boy nodded. “What kind of voice?”

“I dunno,” the boy said. “I just… heard a voice and I had to go up and find it. I’m not crazy, am I?”

“Of course not,” Morty assured him. “I’m a psychic myself. My name’s Morty. I hear voices too, _just like you_.”

Something about the way he said it made Saylee look between him and the boy a couple of times, then take off her glasses and unfocus.

Morty was faintly green. The boy was faintly… _nothing._ It wasn’t simply an absence of the kind of glow that suffused Morty and the old man; it was a very definitive absence, a place where something _wasn’t_ but would be.

 _What the hell kind of god lures their avatar to a dangerous place like this?_ She thought, outraged. “We’re getting out of here,” she declared, looking around. “I don’t see any windows, and the structural integrity of this place doesn’t look great enough to make one.”

“There’s a lot of space above us,” Tobias said, looking up. “Most of the upper floors have crumbled to dust already. They’re completely gone. We could probably fly up the top, but…”

Saylee looked up as well. “There’s something up there,” she said tentatively. It was just a feeling, but it was an incredibly bad feeling, and in Saylee’s experience those were not to be ignored.

“His god,” Morty whispered quietly.

“Like hell,” Saylee whispered back. “This kid’s even younger than Silver and Ethan. Okay, so we’ll fly up to get out,” she suggested more loudly. “But we might have to bust a couple of floors and the ceiling out of the way, so we fly up and then away from the tower as fast as possible, okay?”

Tobias and Charlotte nodded. “Hang on tight,” Charlotte said.

“C’mon, you won’t get cooties,” Saylee said, grabbing Morty and making him wrap his arms around her before she wrapped her arms around Charlotte’s neck. “Okay, go!”

Tobias shot a couple of Aura Spheres up to pulverize the floors above them and then he and Charlotte shot up, flying through the debris. They smashed through a dozen or so floors before they came out on the roof and the centre of a tornado.

Saylee had expected either blue skies or night; what she got was a formless whirl of white and winds that hit them like a fist. She felt Morty reflexively cling tighter to her as she clung onto Charlotte, but she instantly lost sight of Tobias and the child. When she tried to call out, she couldn’t. She couldn’t even breathe. She couldn’t get any air into her lungs.

She looked around wildly and saw something that made her heart stop. Charlotte’s tail flame had gone out.

She forced her arm to move against the wind, grabbing Charlotte’s pokéball tightly and pressing the button. To her relief, Charlotte vanished, meaning that she hadn’t been oxygen-starved for long enough for the loss of her tail flame to kill her. The relief was short-lived, however, as the winds ripped into Saylee and Morty anew, sending them spinning through the air. Saylee’s glasses were knocked away and she tried to snatch them. They were lost immediately, though, so she tried to grab Morty’s wrists as she slipped out of his grip, but she lost him as he vanished into the whirling white and she was flung into the sky.

After a long moment of tumbling and wind battering her from all directions, she saw blue, all around her. She spun for several moments before levelling out, wind blowing into her face hard enough to force tears from her eyes, which she could barely keep open. All she saw was a blur of blue, but it wasn’t until a salty smell hit her that she realized that it wasn’t the sky below her, but the sea.

 _I’m falling_ , she realized. _From this height, it isn’t the water that’ll splash when I hit it…_ Her right hand was still gripping Charlotte’s pokéball. She released her Charizard, praying that Charlotte had revived. She felt the heat of the large fire-type beside her briefly before it vanished. She felt a tremendous amount of relief as a roar sounded somewhere above her, and a few moments later, she landed heavily on Charlotte’s back.

“What _was_ that?!” Charlotte asked shakily as she straightened out, soaring over the ocean below. Saylee craned her neck to look all around them. The sea went to the horizon in almost every direction, but she could also see a distant landmass with mountains spiking into the sky. Even higher than the mountains, however, was the tower, a thin line of brown that actually went into the clouds. Saylee was shocked by how far away it was.

 _What the hell is up there? How did it throw me so far?!_ She wondered, pointing at the tower. “We need to go back there to find Morty, Toby and the kid,” she said.

“Yeah, but what actually is it that’s up there?” Charlotte pressed. “What sucked away all of the air?”

“The Tower might just be too tall,” Saylee said, peering up as Charlotte flew towards the imposing building. Most of the sky was cloudless and blue, but a huge white cloud was obscuring the top of the tower and making it impossible to see how tall it was. “The air gets thinner the higher into the mountains you go. Maybe that’s what happened.”

“So what _threw_ us?” Charlotte asked. “That wasn’t wind, not that threw us this far.”

“There’s a God up there,” Saylee said grimly. “I think it wanted the kid, and it didn’t need the rest of us.”

“Well, that’s just _rude_ ,” Charlotte complained. “Hey, is that Toby?”

“I think it is… TOBY!” Saylee shouted, waving. The Togekiss was circling the tower, and as they drew closer Saylee saw that he had Morty on his back.

“I can’t seem to warp in time or space,” Morty called. “I think whatever’s up there can interfere with the powers of other gods.”

“Do you think it interfered with your time jump to bring us here in the first place?” Saylee asked.

“Probably,” Tobias said. “Somebody needed to help that boy get up to the top. Who better than a God and a Guardian?”

“I’m pretty sure ‘Guardian’ is some kind of old word for ‘patsy’,” Saylee growled, peering up at the clouds. “We have to—”

In a flash of deep, emerald green, the cloud dissipated.

“Too late,” Morty muttered.

There was a massive rush of wind, this time drawing them towards the top of the tower. As they reached the peak, they saw a flat stone plateau, crumbling from the cracked holes where they had blasted through. In the centre of the plateau, a ball of emerald light was steadily shrinking.

“Lee, that roof’s going to fall apart,” Tobias observed.

“Charlotte, can you get closer?” Saylee asked. “We need to grab that kid before the tower crumbles.”

Charlotte nodded, tentatively approaching the emerald light before being buffeted away by the wind whirling around the boy. “I can’t do it,” she grunted, trying in vain to flap her huge wings against the wind.

“Let me try,” Tobias said, hovering closer to Wally. The air glowed pink around him as he shielded himself from the wind, which was starting to drop a little anyway as the emerald light shrank from a ball to the shape of a child. Morty reached out and grabbed the shape of a wrist, pulling the little boy up onto Tobias’ back before the roof fell out from under them.

“Have you got him alright?” Saylee asked.

“I’ve got him, but I don’t know if he’s alright,” Morty replied. “The glow’s starting to die down… it looks like he’s unconscious.”

“Ethan and Silver both were after they ascended,” Saylee said. “You were too, although I’m glad it was only for a few seconds. If you hadn’t woken up enough to jump again, we both would have died.”

“What do we do with him?” Morty asked. “His breathing sounds bad…”

“He must be here with somebody,” Saylee said, peering down the tower. “We should take him down and find his parents or… he mentioned a Mr Weave or something, right? Maybe it’s his teacher and his class is down there.”

“What do we tell them? That we rescued him from the tower, but he’s ill?” Morty asked.

“I can’t think of anything better to tell them, can you?” Saylee replied. “C’mon…”

{}

They found a large group of young children at the bottom of the tower, waiting under the supervision of a heavyset teenage boy.

“Excuse me,” Morty said, climbing off of Tobias’ back with Wally in his arms. “Do any of you know this boy?”

“Hey! It’s Wally!” one little girl cried, pointing. The children swarmed Morty, exclaiming over Wally, whom Morty carefully laid on the ground.

“Mila, go get Mr Weaves and the others! Tell them we found them!” the teenage boy ordered. A little girl with short, curly red hair went running into the Tower. “Is he alright?”

“We found him in the Tower,” Morty said. “He’s ill. We managed to get him out before the tower collapsed. Are his parents here?”

“He hasn’t got any,” the teenager said. “None of us do. We’re from the Petalburg Home.”

“ _Some_ of us have parents,” a black-haired teenage girl called, not looking up from skimming rocks into the sea. “ _Some_ of us _do_ have a family. _Some_ of us aren’t _completely_ pathetic.”

“Don’t start,” the boy said tiredly. “She’s just being mean ‘cause her parents are in jail,” he whispered.

The little girl came running out of the tower with several teenagers and adults in tow. “Well, you’d better get Wally there to a hospital,” Morty said, walking back over to Saylee. “C’mon, we’d better go.”

“It looks like he’s got a lot of people to look after him,” Saylee agreed, returning Tobias and Charlotte. “Ready?”

“I’m getting the hang of steering it,” Morty said, taking her hand. They vanished as one of the adults from the tower started shouting.

{}

The darkness where they landed was almost impenetrable. There were no stars or moon visible above them, no light at all save for a few distant, flickering pinpricks. From the pattern of the pinpricks and the feeling of dust and dry grass under her shoes, Saylee quickly realized where she was, and more importantly, approximately when.

“We’re near Viridian City,” she whispered. “We’re standing at the foot of the Indigo Mountains. That’s Viridian down there.”

“It’s so dark that I can barely see a thing,” Morty muttered. “Are you sure?”

Saylee nodded, her memory picking out the shantytown and half-ruined buildings that her eyes could not discern in the blackness. “We’re a few years early, I don’t know how many. You can tell by how there’s no light at all except for in… well, I guess it’s still the Rocket Compound.” She tapped Charlotte’s pokéball, staring thoughtfully at the random pinpricks from the only building in the “city” with electricity. “I could save myself so much trouble by burning that place to the ground right now. You can’t imagine some of the shit we found when we cleared that place out after driving the Rockets away…”

“Don’t,” Morty muttered, taking a few deep breaths. “Messing with your personal timeline is…” he took a long, slow breath. “Give me a minute. If I really focus, I can jump in time without changing location. I just need to catch my—”

“WAIT!”

Saylee went rigid with shock at the sound of the child’s scream. “Silver,” she whispered.

“Saylee, you told me yourself that we’re in the past, he’ll be—Saylee!” Morty hissed as Saylee took off in the direction of the scream. She ignored him, running up the dusty earth and dry grass until it turned into the dust and scree of the Indigo foothills. There was a rocky path, she knew, a pass through the boulders that led up into the Indigo Mountains. She’d gone up it herself the first time that she’d ventured into the Indigo Plateau. Morty caught up with her and dragged her behind one of the rocks just as she spotted Silver. The rock wasn’t really big enough to hide them, but the darkness did the rest. Silver himself was only visible because somebody was pointing the beam of a flashlight at him.

“I don’t understand you!” Silver screamed angrily, his voice choked with tears. “You don’t make any sense!” Saylee jerked forwards again, her heart twisting at the raw pain in her little brother’s voice. _We’re back before I first met him_ , she remembered. He was a little smaller than the first time she’d seen him, and she could see it now, when she focused, the gap in him where Ho-oh would one day be. _He was so scared and angry because—_

“One day, you will understand,” the man holding the flashlight said coldly. Saylee stiffened as she recognized the voice. Morty wrapped his arms around hers as she lunged forwards, holding her back and preventing her from grabbing any of her pokéballs.

“Let me _go_!” Saylee snapped. “I’m going to _kill_ that piece of—”

“You can’t!” Morty hissed. “Much as you want to, and I know you want to—listen! I can feel it, if you alter what happens to him, who knows what will happen to the present that we return to—”

“Maybe I’m _supposed_ to interfere,” Saylee argued. “He never turned up in Goldenrod, and maybe this is why—”

Morty dragged them both to the ground to hide as the flashlight moved, turning to illuminate the path up the mountain as Giovanni turned his back on his younger son and continued up to the mountains.

“I don’t _WANT_ to understand you!” Silver screamed after his father. “I will NEVER become someone like you! A coward when you’re alone and acting like a… a _tyrant_ when you’re in front of other _cowards_! I WILL become strong! I’ll become a stronger man _all by myself_! ALL BY MYSELF!”

Silver panted angrily for a few seconds, running out of the breath or energy to keep screaming. Giovanni’s face wasn’t visible, only the distant and vanishing beam of his flashlight, but it didn’t stop or turn back to Silver or even falter in the slightest. Saylee hated him more every second. She couldn’t see Silver anymore, but she could _feel_ his despair as he was left, as far as he knew, all alone. She heard the tiny _thump_ as he slumped to the ground, and the muffled sound of him sobbing with his face hidden in his arms or knees.

“I know you want to go to him, but you _can’t_ , he doesn’t know you yet, you’ll just frighten him,” Morty said quickly.

“What if I promise not to _kill_ Giovanni, just to slap him with a rock a few dozen times?” Saylee growled.

“I’m not saying that that isn’t a fantastic plan, I’m just saying that there’s something else worrying me,” Morty said.

“What’s that?” Saylee asked.

Morty nodded up at the rocks looming over them. “Didn’t you once tell me that humans and Pokémon used to eat each other?”

Saylee looked up at the rocks. In the darkness, it took her a few seconds to notice what Morty had already sensed: something was moving across the rocks above them. A _lot_ of somethings, tiny movements in the darkness all around the two of them and Silver.

“Mankey pack,” Saylee whispered. “Oh, crap. Tell me I can interfere here.”

“Interfere away,” Morty said, letting go of her. “I think it may be important that you do.”

Saylee released Eric, who had been Red’s Espeon and was now nominally hers. “Eric, can you sense all those Mankey?” she whispered.

“Yes… my goodness, is that Matty’s pack?” Eric said, his eyes glowing purple in the darkness. “I thought they’d moved up into the mountains months ago.”

“Well, we’re kind of a couple years back,” Saylee said, “so they’re still here. Confuse ‘em, quick!”

The glow in Eric’s eyes shifted to red and intensified, and the Mankey around them were suddenly lit up in pink glows as the psychic power took hold, messing with their minds. The pack members started screeching in fright as they became disoriented and fell from the rocks. Morty and Saylee dodged aside as several Mankey fell at their feet, howling and clawing at their heads.

Silver yelped as several landed near him and took off running for Viridian.

“C’mon, we’d better make sure he gets back safely,” Saylee said, patting Eric’s head and then running back down the hill after Silver, with Eric and Morty in tow. With Eric’s power, they drove away a few following Mankey, some wild Rattata and an especially hungry-looking Nidorina before Silver reached the relative safety of the compound. They watched from a safe distance, shrouded in the darkness, as a guard opened the door for Silver.

“With Giovanni gone, they’re going to decamp to the Sevii Islands,” Saylee muttered. “They’re going to torture the Pokémon there in order to develop that goddamn signal…”

“Which you will have dealt with ably, I’m sure,” Morty replied. “We should leave _now_. That old man told me a lot about the nature of time and set points relative to your own timeline. If you attack that compound now, or follow Giovanni into the mountains—”

“The mountains,” Saylee gasped, turning to face the Indigo Mountain range. “Eric… we’re a couple of years in the past. Red is still up there! We don’t know when he died—he might still be alive!”

“We have to find him,” Eric said immediately, glowing more brightly. “Come on, I’ll light the way up—”

“Wait! Both of you!” Morty said, grabbing Saylee’s arm.

“Morty, letting Giovanni go is one thing,” Saylee said angrily, “but if you expect me to _let_ my brother _die_ —I don’t care about timelines, time can fucking _deal with it_ —”

“Saylee, just listen to me for one damn minute!” Morty snapped. The ‘damn’ was enough to give Saylee pause; she’d never heard the perpetually easygoing psychic swear. “Look, that old man told me that one of the most important things about time travel is knowing what’s fixed and what’s mutable, and that you _cannot change_ what’s fixed. I don’t mean that you’re not allowed to, I mean that it is _literally impossible_. Whether your brother is alive or dead right now, his death is fixed and there is no path that you can take to save him. You aren’t the first person to try to use time travel to save a life, you know.”

“The old man… who did he try to save?” Saylee asked quietly. “Why didn’t it work?”

“I don’t know who,” Morty said grimly. “He wouldn’t say and I didn’t press him because it was clearly hurting him to even bring it up. But the point is, if we go into those mountains, the _best_ case scenario is that we find him already dead.”

“But if we find Red alive…” Eric tried to argue.

“Then we will see him die,” Morty said. “Or, even worse, we inadvertently _cause_ his death. And we can go back further and try to do it over a thousand times, but all that will happen is that you’ll see your brother dead a thousand and one times, and I just don’t hate you enough to use my powers for that.” He squeezed Saylee’s shoulder. “I’m telling you as a friend. Accept it now that you can’t save him from dying up there. I won’t help you learn that the hard way.”

Saylee looked down, no longer able to meet Morty’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Morty,” she said, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. “I know it’s selfish of me to want to use your powers like this. I just…” she pushed up her glasses as she pressed her hand over her eyes, feeling her own warm tears trickle through her fingers. “I just… I thought I could save him… it’s been more than a year and I still have dreams where he slips through my fingers and off of that cliff. I can’t stop thinking about how there must have been something I could do to save him. There _must_ have…”

“I’m sorry, Saylee, but there isn’t,” Morty said gently. “And believe me, if I thought for a second I could help you, I would. You _have_ saved my life a fair few times in the past few days, after all. If anybody has the right to ask for a time-travelling favour, it’s you. But that old man was, or will be, a far more powerful Time God than Celebi, and even he could not avert a fixed death. You have to accept that, Saylee. You’re still grieving, and you can’t finish grieving and move on until you accept it.”

“I can’t believe that you let us save Silver, but not Red,” Eric whined bitterly, lying down with his head on his front paws.

“It’s not my decision, Eric,” Morty said, reaching down to scratch Eric’s ears by way of apology. Eric batted his hand away. “I’m sorry.”

Saylee knelt down and scooped Eric up, burying her face in his fine lavender fur. “I miss him too, Eric,” she mumbled. “I think… I think we need to get back on track. We need to go home, back to the right time…”

“I told myself that I made it back immediately after dropping you off,” Morty said, putting his hand on Saylee’s shoulder. “Of course, it seemed to make me pretty ill, but the important thing is that I already know that it works. Are you ready?”

Saylee nodded, standing up with Eric cradled in her arms. “I’ll come visit you and see how you’re doing straight away,” she offered.

“Thank you,” Morty said with a smile, “but I’m sure I’ll be fine. After all,” he added, squeezing her shoulder as he glowed green again, “some things are fixed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we’re back where we started… but both Saylee and Morty have learned a lot. Anyway, so that’s the story of how Morty became a time-traveller XD For further god-related fun and disaster, please turn to Calamity Calls!


End file.
